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Food of Chennai

Palette of famous food of ChennaiChennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, is well known for its food and variety of cuisines. The city is famous for its vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes alike, and it offers an assortment of finger licking dishes. 

Rice is the staple diet of Chennai, and irrespective of whether it is breakfast, lunch or dinner, rice features in all meals, in different forms and shapes.

The day of a typical South Indian starts with a hot steaming  filter coffee . In most of the houses and hotels people drink filter coffees in small tumblers with a bowl along it

Breakfast in Chennai:

Idli and Sambar as breakfast in Chennai

Most common breakfast cuisine in Chennai would include idli and dosa along with different varieties of Uttapam, Upumav and Vada.

Idli & Sambar – These are steamed rice cakes usually served with different kinds of sauces. Most of the sauce served are coconut based, and the variation would be in the chilly quantity. 

Tomato sauce is famous all across Chennai and all household at all time would have a good stock of it. The idli is served with sambar which becomes extremely nutritious with a generous helping of dal and vegetables.

Dosa is another famous dish in Chennai. People consume a lot of dosa in different variations.The dosa is filled with tangy potato masala or likes.

Uttappam, is a small deviation from dosa, where the same dosa batter is used but is thicker, and topped with vegetables and mustard seeds and fried curry leaves.

Upumav, is made of rava and features in the menu of almost all hotels in Chennai. Crispy fried vada is the favorite snack consumed at all times of the day in Tamil Nadu, and also is devoured at breakfast.Vada is served with sauce and sambar. It is served in a bowl, with a good amount of sambar topped on it.

Lunch and Dinner in Chennai:


Lunch in Chennai with rice and legumesRice and legumes, play a very important role in the Chennai cuisine. Parathas and chappati are also eaten for meals. 

In a characteristic South Indian restaurant, rice and the other dishes if served on banana leaves is considered to be sacred.

The classic meal known as Saapadu, is served with rice, dished up with different curries, such as rasam, kootu(dry vegetable),avial. 

One of the condiment that is must for the meal is “appalam”.


Most of the Chennaities, finish their meal by eating curd with rice. Chennai is famous for different varieties of rice, such as pongal which is a rice dish, mixed with dal and a good heap of ghee. The other types of rice include lime rice, tamarind rice, tomato rice and curd rice.

Non-Vegetarian Food in Chennai:


Pepper Chicken is the speciality in ChennaiThe most famous non-vegetarian food consumed in Chennai is chicken, mutton and fish. Chettinad pepper chicken  is popular across all sections of population.

In the coastal area, sea-food is extremely popular and one can get extremely fresh prawns, lobsters and crabs.

Apart from the specialties, you will find many local non-veg eating joints in Chennai streets.

Also Read: Non-vegetarian Restaurants in Chennai

Sweets and Snacks in Chennai:


Rava Payasam served as famous sweet in ChennaiChennai is home to potpourri of sweets. Every shop or restaurant you visit, you will be spoiled by the choice of sweets offered. 

Most famous dishes are payasam, these are made with vermicelli or rice and are slow cooked in milk with a generous amount of sugar and ghee.

Kesari
is made out of rava, and it is popularly served for breakfast and also tea. 

Another dish sweet boli is famous in Chennai and it is made of Channa dal (pulse) and jaggery.

The most popular snacks of Chennai include murukku which are rice sticks. Murukku alongwith other snacks are devoured during evening time.Pakoda made from big chillies and potatoes. Vada is also savored as an evening snack.

In Chennai, it’s a belief that serving food is providing service to humanity. South Indian cuisine unifies six different tastes such as sweet, salt, bitter, pungent, sour and astringent. It is a treat to taste the different dishes, in Chennai and you will yearn for more with each visit.

Find out more about the foods here  Restaurants in Chennai, Vegetarian Restaurants in Chennai

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